A Change of Heart
by loopier
Summary: Kurapika escaped his tribe's massacre with his sister, Scarlett. In order to protect her, he takes away her memory and leaves her to live a normal life. Living without memories makes Scarlett desperate and she falls in with the wrong crowd. Very wrong.
1. Hajime

I don't own Hunter X Hunter. OC is Scarlett, myown.

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Scarlett was extremely focused. Heart pounding, blood pumping, no sounds could be heard except heavy breathing and the crunching of dead leaves under their feet.

"Keep running!" she shouted to her younger brother over her shoulder.

They have to get away. At this point, all that's in her mind is getting her and her brother as far away from the tribal grounds as possible. Over the distance she could hear the massacre still happening; screams of pain and sorrow mixed with the clashing of metal and guttural shouts of destruction. They could never go back.

After what seemed like hours of running, she and her brother decide to take a break. They hid in a deep cave and rested. No words passed between them. Silence reigned. Each needn't say anything.

They knew about what would have happened; the elders have been saying it for years. They criticized the younger generation of Kurutas for being too friendly with the outside world. They strongly believed that the Kurutas ought to keep to themselves owing to their colorful eyes. They said their eyes made them different and things that are different only had 2 fates awaiting them: 1) Rejection to the point of destruction, 2) Being coveted to the point of destruction; either way, the Kurutas would lose, and today, they lost big time.

"Tomorrow…" she started but was unable to continue. She let the dead air hang between them. She was debating on whether her plan was actually a good one. For a few seconds she sat there and pondered; the silence only being broken by the occasional shuffling of cave mice. After a while, she made up her mind. She continued, "Tomorrow we go back"

Her brother's eyes went wide with disbelief and fear. "But we can't go back! What if they're still there?" he retorted. This is the type of reaction she was hoping to avoid. She was tired and hungry and drained. She hoped that her brother would just shut up and listen for once.

"I know. Which is why I go first, then if all is clear I'll send a signal and you come after." She replied

"But –"

"That's enough Kurapika. We need to know what happened. I want to know. You don't have to come"

The last statement really was unnecessary. She knew that her brother would want to come. And to be perfectly honest, she really didn't want to go alone. They were both scared and felt vulnerable. They needed something familiar to hang on to; all they had now was each other.

"But –"

"Look. I made up my mind. Time to make up yours. Whatever you decide on, this cave is our rendezvous, okay? It's been a really long day and at this point I really don't know what to say except that we should take this one day at a time." Even as she said it, she realized the stupidity behind the words. They could have potentially lost their entire tribe and yet, the way she talked made their problem seem so shallow.

"Just…just get some sleep okay?" she continued. She really didn't have much to say at this point and no energy to say anything else. She could see the defiance building behind her brother's eyes, not knowing what else to do, she begged her brother with her eyes to just listen and not argue. It seemed to have worked, her brother's gaze softened and he seemed to just retract all words of defiance at this point. He nodded and turned his back to her.

_That'll do,_ she thought.

They spent the next couple of minutes winding down and sharing the silence. Eventually, they nodded off.

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The next day, Kurapika woke up first. He decided to pick some random fruits and vegetables for a quick breakfast. Scarlett was still asleep, he decided to leave her there while he went ahead and check on the tribe. If it was bad news, she would be spared. Growing up, he was taught to always be a gentleman and protect the female gender; there was no need to scar her any more than she already was. So, without another thought, he sped on to the direction of the tribe.

He rushed into the thick greenery of the forest, ignoring twigs that snapped beneath his feet. As he approached the tribal grounds, he slowed down and became silent. Taking out his weapon, he was ready to strike anything that would get in his way and anyone who aided in the attack of his people. Every step he made was calculated and precise. He cursed himself a thousand times for every noise he made. Finally, as he was nearing the main tribal grounds, he lost all trail of thoughts. He dropped his weapon and fell to his knees.

"…!"

There were no words for what he was currently seeing. Blood and metal and wooden scraps everywhere, bodies with emptied eye sockets littered the ground. He wanted to look for his friends and family but was too afraid that he might find them on the ground instead of hiding. His voice was stuck in his throat. He wanted to scream. He wanted to run.

Suddenly a pair of clammy hand darted from behind him and covered his eyes. His heart jumped with fear and anger and surprise. The hands then turned him around and squeezed him tight. The smell of earth filled his nose and he knew that it was Scarlett. She was holding him, keeping his eyes closed and his being secure. He was so stupid, thinking that he could do this on his own. He failed. He failed to protect his family, to protect his tribe, to uphold strength and dignity.

As Kurapika's mind filled with self-defeating thoughts, Scarlett looked on. Red blood covered the brown ground, she wanted to scream and cry but her body hasn't caught up yet. She heard a loud noise only to realize that it was Kurapika screaming and expressing his grief. They really were the only ones left.

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'**Cause I just felt like it.**


	2. A Brother's Deed

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He'd done it. He was able to erase her memory.

It seems idiotic to think that in moments of panic and incredible fear, his brain comes up with the most ironically fitting memory. Just like now. As he was running through theback alleys of the town, he recalls what one of the elders taught him after he had finished reading a book telling a story about an immortal man. He approached the elder about his queries and received a piece of wisdom that he has not appreciated until now:

"_True immortality is not when you live forever; it's when the memory of you lives on"_

Well that's helpful. Not really. Now that his sister's memory was gone, he was truly no one. He was dead. No one knows him, no one knows that he is alive, nor would they care.

But the string of painful and fitting memories just continued to play in his mind one after another. The most painful was his memory of the events that happened just a few hours ago….

_The sun was setting. It was his favorite time of the day and normally, he could be seen sitting on their rooftop staring towards the sun and just watching it set. He loved the color and everything that went with it. However, right now the only color Kurapika could see was brown as he stared at the freshly dug earth._

_He had heard somewhere and sometime ago that when you feel sad, all you had to do was busy yourself and you would forget what it is that you were sad about. It doesn't seem to be true. He kept himself busy the entire day, but for some reason he just couldn't forget. It probably has something to do with the fact that the tasks he engaged in had something to do with handling the dead bodies of his tribesman._

_He and Scarlett spent the early morning collecting the bodies of their comrades and giving them the proper burial rites. The rites included washing the body, covering it in a traditional cloth and burying it in the tribal grounds. They had originally agreed to do the whole process together but Scarlett took over the washing of the bodies after Kurapika had broken down while handling the third body which he recognized was their cousin. He was then left scavenging for tribal cloths and digging the graves._

_Kurapika was too busy brooding over his day to notice that that Scarlett had already buried the last body and paid her respects. They were silent for a while, Scarlett just looking at her younger brother and Kurapika just looking very much catatonic. Scarlett decided to break the silence._

"_Ne, Kurapika. I've been thinking… after we're done here, we should probably go away and keep a low profile. We have enough money to move to another country and start anew"_

"_No"_

"_What?"_

"_No! I won't just start anew. I want revenge. I want to get those people back! I want to get our people's eyes back!"_

"_Kurapika, no! Listen, our people are strong fighters, but this group, they cut us down like garden weed! I know that's probably not the bet way to say it but its true. If our entire tribe couldn't beat them, what chance have we got? Besides, they probably don't know we escaped, this gives us the perfect cover to just liv –"_

"_LIVE? LIVE? Can you hear yourself? You talk like the sacrifice of our people is nothing more to you that just a decoy for our survival; did they mean so little to you? They died! And all you can think about is.. is… is to live as if nothing has happened! What are –"_

_SMACK_

_The sound of flesh slapping flesh echoed in the sudden silence they found themselves in._

"_They mean more to me, if not as much, as they meant to you!" cried Scarlett with tears streaking down her face. Her pale skin reflecting the golden rays of the setting sun; her eyes flashed a shade of red that made her worthy of her name, but it went just as fast as it came._

"_What I want for us now, is to leave. The memory is too painful to deal with. Yes, I may seem like I don't care, or that it doesn't affect me at all, but it does. I'm just trying to be strong here. If there was any person who earned the right to start again, it's us! I just don't want to stay here" she finished_

"_I'm not planning on staying here. I'm going to find them. This… this Genei Ryodan, they called themselves. And I will bring them down. And I'll do it alone if I have to."_

"_No you won't! I've heard enough of this. Tonight we sleep in the tribal grounds and tomorrow we'll.. we'll.. we'll figure it out" she ended with a sigh._

_Kurapika stared in defiance, his cold-ocean blue eyes met his sister's tired, and worn out gaze. It was then that he knew he would have to do it alone. The cogs in his mind started to move, formulating a plan in order to avenge his people without worrying his sister or dragging her with him. Despite his speech, he really did not want her to go with him; it was dangerous and he knew that she was too much of a peaceful person. Her plan was always to evade and never to attack. So he had to formulate a plan to make her live peacefully while he goes and find these Spiders. But for now, he must appease her mind._

"_Okay" he said._

_That night he performed the memory erasing technique he was taught in defense class. It was a technique that was only taught to a select few in every other generation. How he was picked, he didn't know, but it was taught just in case a rogue Kuruta decided to betray his people. Said rogue Kuruta would then have his memory erased, permanently, and banished from the tribe._

_Tonight though, he used it on his sister._

Remembering that last conversation and action didn't help strengthen his resolve for revenge, he had half the mind to turn around now, restore her memories somehow, and beg for forgiveness.

Maybe someday_, _he thought.

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'**Cause I just felt like it.**


	3. The Escape

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It's been one year since she was found simply lying there. When she awoke in a clinic, she was very confused and after failing to recall anything about herself, she became very scared. However, the man assured her that she was safe and was welcome to stay with him and his brothers. They then gave her a piece of crumpled paper which they said was in her fist when they found her. It bore a single word, assumedly her name: Scarlett.

She stayed with the group for a year. They gave her a house to live in and food to eat. She was happy except when the brothers would have their friends over. She didn't like their friends, especially they way they looked at her. Also, there were other girls in the household, but they never talked to her. Some of them looked at her with anger, some with pity and others just chose to ignore her.

But other than that, she was happy. Since she couldn't remember anything, they had to teach her how to read, how to write, and what to say. It was a nice for a while, until she overheard two "big brothers" talking about her.

"So, how's that Scarlett girl progressing?" said one

"She's progressing fine. I thought she might be one of them stupid girls, but she's got a brain on her, that one." Replied the other

"Oh, so you think she's ready?"

"Ready? For what? university?" laughed the man

"Very funny. I'm serious. A lot of the men have seen her hanging around the house and keep asking for her"

"Yeah, yeah, I know that. You don't know how much I've had to restrain myself from jumping her. Teaching her isn't hard. What's hard is keeping my eyes away from her tits and my hands from her ass"

"You'd better not have done anything to her. The doctor said she's a virgin. We can get more for the virgin ones, especially since her features are perfect with her smooth skin, high cheekbones, small nose, blond hair and big blue eyes, and pouting lips. The men have started competing with each other already. Raising the prices before we even auction off her virginity"

"yeah yeah…"

Scarlett was frozen on her spot under the open window. They were going to make a prostitute out of her? Refusing what she heard to be the truth, she quickly left to investigate.

The results were not promising.

It turns out that under the guise of a normal house hold, the people who adopted her actually ran a brothel house. What was worse is that they expected her to be one of their 'employees'.

Needless to say, she started to hatch a plan of an escape.

The night before she was supposed to start working, she made a run for it. She didn't go unnoticed; some of the other girls saw her and threatened to sound the alarm if she didn't take them with her. So, she was forced to take five other girls with her. But as it turned out, it didn't matter if she left by herself, because somehow the owners found out and chased after them.

Scarlett knew before hand, that in the face of exposure and arrest, the brothers would rather kill them than make money out of them. So Scarlett also planted traps around the house. Some were deadly, some were permanently damaging, and she didn't feel guilty at all. They might have helped her, but after finding out the reason they helped her, all bets are off.

The other girls with her decided to run off in a different direction, and as she heard the shouts and screams of the brothers, she felt content but in no way was she stopping.

She didn't know it yet. But she was headed to a deserted city that very few people know about and whose citizens have nothing to lose.

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'**Cause I just felt like it**


	4. Why Indeed

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_Where am I? why is it so dark? It's like I can't breathe..._

_I can't breathe… I can't move… what's happening to me?_

"God damn it! Stop squirming!" said a harsh voice

Scarlett's eyes snapped open. Her vision was blurred, but she could tell she wasn't alone. In fact, quite a few people were there; all of them, staring at her.

As her vision cleared, she got a much clearer view of the people around her. _Well, they're certainly a motley crew._ She thought to herself. Around her was the strangest collection of people. _Is that man covered in bandages? Oh my, he looks like a disgraced samurai_ she thought about the man who shouted at her_._

"So you're awake" said a much lower baritone voice

She whipped her head towards the direction of the voice and came face to face with a pale, wide, dark eyed man with a tattoo of an inverted cross on his forehead. _A handsome man, _she thought. _No! Remember what happened the last time? Or did you forget already, those men were nice to you but they wanted to turn you into a… a… woman-for-rent!_

That woke her up. She didn't know where she was but the situation of her being disoriented and having a strange man by her bedside was familiar. That's how it was with the "brothers". Well, this time, she wasn't falling for it.

"Where am I? who are you? how did I get here?" she asked

The man stood and looked down at her with a smirk playing on his lips.

"You're in Meteor city, we found you out here, unconscious"

Scarlett stared back thinking about what he said. Images rushed in her head like moving pictures. Running away from the brother's, ending up in a desert, walking for days and finally ending up in a small city full of garbage, fighting off lusty men and finally, falling unconscious.

The memory of her ordeal sent shivers down her spine. If she is in Meteor city then it spells big problem for her. She once overheard from the brother's guests that the city is full of criminals who would cut your throat as soon as you look at them wrong.

Maybe it was just her mind getting ahead of her, but if that was true, then there was no way these people helped her just because they felt sorry for her, there was also no way they would keep her alive if she struggled or refused to do for them what they wanted. They wanted something. She's just afraid to ask what it was.

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"Ne, Dancho"

"…"

"Why are we keeping the girl? She's been here 2 weeks and she hasn't been doing anything" said Phinx

"It is possible, that she got brain damaged before we found her" Machi pitched in.

"Nah, that can't be it. She reacted normally when she walked in on Nobu while he was using the toilet" sniggered Phinx amid Nobunaga's tone of protest.

Deciding to get to the point and tired of messing around Feitan interjected, "What are you planning to do with her?" he asked the young leader.

"We'll use her for our next heist. Her physical appearance will come in handy for a distraction" answered the young leader

"Are you sure about that, dancho?" interjected Shalnark "she didn't look too pleased when she saw Feitan kill that intruder the other night, why would she help us?"

"An exchange, her life for her participation –"

"Hold on! We don't need her help. If we encounter anyone in during the heist, we can just kill them. So, we can just kill her now, why did we have to bargain for her participation? Why keep her alive?" said Nobunaga.

_Why indeed_ thought the young man.

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'**cause I felt like it**


	5. Speechless

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"I'd rather die" was the reply Scarlett made after being told of the plan. _How dare they even think I would help them?_

"Weren't you listening?" said the frustrated Nobunaga. "That's exactly the exchange. Help or die"

"I was listening and I'm telling you I'd rather die. I will not help you or any of your friends steal, lie, cheat, and kill"

"Why you—"

"I'm afraid this is non-negotiable" interjected Kuroro

_When did he come in? I didn't hear him come in _thought Scarlett.

"You see" continued the leader "we need you to be the main aversion for the guards outside. With all the petty guards outside taken care of, the rest of us can simply get inside where our abilities are more needed. Do you know NEN? All of the guards inside will be using it to guard the items. Therefore, we choose not to be distracted by petty guards. Now if you are so intent in dying, we can easily arrange that after the heist. I suggest you don't be difficult."

And with that he turned around to leave.

_I hate him._ She thought. _ I hate him and how he looks at me like he knows everything. How he stands over me and look down at with me his eyes._

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It was sundown again. This was her favorite time of the day. She was currently sitting in the edge of the hideout's roof. This is where she escaped whenever the group got too much for her to handle.

She didn't know why, but the sight of the sun setting always made her want to cry. But at the same time, she wouldn't miss it for the world.

It was just too beautiful, but too sad at the same time.

"Dinner" said a voice from behind

Sigh. Paradise broken. _What does HE want?_

"Dinner"

"No thanks"

"You need your energy for the heist"

"I'm not going to the heist, remember? I refused"

"I will kill you if you don't"

"I don't care, besides you'd probably kill me afterwards anyway"

Kuroro was taken aback by this statement. _Was Nobunaga not clear enough when he stated that this was a door die deal? Did she not understand that if she participated, she would NOT be killed._

"Why do you say that?"

At this, Scarlett decided to stand up and face the leader, "I don't believe you'd let me skip merrily away from you and your band of illiterate murderers after this is over. I'm not stupid"

"I never said you were. Just like I don't remember offering you freedom for your cooperation"

"… what?"

"If you aid us during the heist, we simply will not kill you. We never offered freedom. You came up with that on your own"

"oh.. well then that's just great! Now I really don't have any reason for helping you!"

"Yes, you do"

"Yeah? What?" she taunted

He didn't know what came over him, one minute he was staring down at her admiring how the light of the setting sun illuminated her face, next he was bending over to capture her lips with his. He was caught off guard by his actions, and clearly, she was too. She gasped when his lips touched hers; and as she did, his tongue slipped in her mouth to taste her.

After several seconds have passed, Kuroro righted himself and in a small whisper said:

"oh I think, you could take a guess what other things could happen should you refuse"

With that, he turned away leaving a speechless Scarlett still staring off into space.

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'**cause I felt like it**


	6. After the Heist

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"I vote that we slice her to pieces and boil her body until all her hair falls out and feed her to the dessert vultures"

"Getting too dramatic, Nobu?"

"Shut up, Machi. That girl deliberately sabotaged us"

"So? We got the goods, who cares?"

Kuroro let the others discuss what they wanted to discuss. He was captured by his own thoughts.

The heist had been as disaster to say the least.

The girl acted the way they wanted her to act, she flirted with the guards and they were enamored by her charms. While this was happening, the group infiltrated the mansion and went onto search for the ancient jewelry.

All was well and good even when the guards showed up and started to attack them.

This didn't pose much of a problem, except for the fact that the girl decided to aid the guards by coaching them on how to get around the Genei Ryodan's basic physical attacks. This gave a significant advantage since the guards were also Nen users and weren't completely weaklings to begin with.

However, the girl's coaching and the nen techniques of the guards were no use up against Nobunaga's temper. The samurai, angered by Scarlett's apparent betrayal, used his anger to anchor his nen and slice through the opponent's flesh and bone, like hot knife through butter.

"Danchou!"

Kuroro was snapped out of his reverie by Shalnark.

Kuroro looked up at the young man, expecting to hear another suggestion on what to do with the treacherous girl.

"What do you think we should do with her?"

_What do I do with her? _Kuroro asked himself. He knew that keeping her after what she had done would cause suspicion and fight amongst the members the Spider. But, he wasn't ready to let the girl go.

"I'll deal with her" he finally said as he stood up and exited the room.

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Scarlett was currently locked in a room with no windows and no lights. She was strapped down on a chair with her hands tied behind her back. This was where they decided to deposit her after the heist.

After helping the guards at the mansion, the hot-headed samurai labeled her as enemy #1. He tried to slice her as he did to the other guards; he would've been successful, if Kuroro didn't stop him. Instead, they knocked her unconscious delivered her back to the hideout and tied her up to a chair to await their final judgment for her crimes. _How ironic _she thought.

She paused as she realized that everything had gone quiet. Ever since she woke up, she'd been able to hear the arguments between the members of Genei Ryodan. Now, everyone seems to have stopped talking. _Maybe they came to an agreement on what they should do with me._ The thought brought a new sense of trepidation; suddenly all she could hear was her heartbeat getting faster and louder.

Her eyes quickly scanned the room for any route of escape. She shook her arms in hope that whatever they used to tie her down would come loose, but no luck.

_It's useless. I'm done for, _she thought.

She was going to die. She will never know who she really is. These were her last moments in life. But, instead of feeling sorry or scared for herself, the thought gave her a sense of peacefulness, and mischief. _If they're going to kill me, I'm going to make it hard for them_. Her mind sped up with several scenarios on how she could resist her captors up to her dying breath.

Just when she coming up with something good, she heard the door creak open.

"So, you're awake"

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'**cause I felt like it**


End file.
